


Someday, Under the Moon

by InventorOfStuff



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Friendship, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 05:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3884080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InventorOfStuff/pseuds/InventorOfStuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reisen can never quite remember what the Lunar War was like, but she can certainly remember what Gensokyo is like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someday, Under the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and salutations! I know Touhou is something of an old hat in the fanfiction community by now, but I figured I would start with something simple and familiar as practice for what I hope will be more works to submit to this site. Canon is close to vanilla with some alterations, and is a short and simple conversation between two friends. The conversation is a little all over the place, but youkai aren't quite supposed to behave exactly like humans anyways. Enjoy!

It always came back in fragments.

Reisen could never remember the Lunar War, from its beginnings to its horrifying and almost apocalyptic finale. She knew that it happened, she knew she was there, and when she saw the absolute bulk of it all, she ran. That was as much as she could recall on her own or in casual conversation. But when she slept, it came back to her in vivid nightmares torn out from any safety or ignorance her brain might have cushioned her with in the waking world. The screaming lights of magic tearing across the stars, the howls of hungry and barbaric youkai from the Earth, the sounds of firing lines arranged and launched from a legion of Lunar Rabbits before the wave crashed upon them...it always came back in bits and pieces so vivid and horrible that Reisen sometimes wondered if she ever escaped at all. And when she finally woke back up in her bed, her memories crawled back somewhere she couldn't reach them, leaving her with headaches and only half-remembered glimpses of what was or might have been.

It had become a little better with time. Lunar Rabbits lived a very long time, so Reisen imagined she would be free of the nightmares around the next turn of the century. But even after this much time, just when Reisen thought she had earned a complete week of well-deserved sleep, the nightmares came back right when she let her guard down. That's why she was sitting on the steps of the Eientei instead of sleeping that night, staring up at the starry sky above with the half-moon standing proud in the middle of it all. Her red eyes were half-lidded, her expression dull and bored. She wasn't sure if it was because of her own stubborn refusal to go back to sleep this night or that any homesickness she had disappeared after the last incident related to the Lunarians. Though Reisen could safely say the 'Second Lunar War' was nowhere near as bad as the first, it was a ridiculous and silly experience for all involved and she'd much prefer it never happened again.

Her train of thought was brought to a screeching halt when the loud call of a bugle went off in one of her long ears, instantly giving Reisen a worse headache just as she jumped and flailed her arms about. **"AAAH?!"**

Struggling to regain her composure, her face flushed from such a cartoonish reaction, Reisen glared down at the culprit. It was none other than Tewi Inaba herself, her lips still on the bugle as she trumpeted what Reisen assumed was an assembly call. Tewi eventually stopped and spat out the bugle, catching it in her right hand and grinning widely at the taller rabbit. "Good eveniiing, Reisen!" Tewi said as bombastically as possible.

"Ssssh!" Reisen quickly put a finger against her own mouth, speaking in a panicked whisper. "What is wrong with you, Tewi?! You could wake the Princess! Or worse, you'll wake Eirin!"

"I got bored and you were ignoring me," Tewi said with a pout as she tossed the bugle over her shoulder, crashing into some poor offscreen wildlife in the process. "Besides, it's not like there's anyone else here except the other rabbits, and they don't really matter!" She added with some cheer.

"Guh...you must be the absolute worst boss to them," Reisen sighed, pinching her nosebridge with her fingers.

"Haven't heard any complaints yet! Out loud. For long. After repeated paddlings." Tewi added in rapid succession before taking a seat next to where Reisen was standing, the Lunar Rabbit mumbling in pain as she gently massaged her own ear. "What are you even doing up this late, anyways?

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?!" Reisen said angrily before her eyes snapped wide open in realization, covering her mouth with both hands quickly. This earned a toothy grin from Tewi. Her face red with embarrassment and frustration, she dropped her hands and glared at Tewi. "Shut up."

"I didn't say nothin'." Tewi replied, flapping her hand idly. Not having the energy to argue or much of anything better to do, Reisen grudgingly sat down next to the shorter rabbit and did her best to get comfortable again. "Seriously though, what's up?"

"I'm fine."

"Liar."

"Look who's talking."

"Hey, I'm your elder, you should have more faith in me than that!"

"I'm more of an adult than you!"

"Wow, you're actually older than me? No wonder you have so many white hairs!"

"Sh-shut up!" Reisen could feel a vein starting to bulge in her head. She was not in any mood for this today, and her tolerance ran thin amazingly quickly.

"Granny Reisen, Granny Reisen~!" Tewi called in a sing-song voice before Reisen shot up to her feet and held her index finger forwards, as though she were pointing a gun.

**"SHUT UP, TEWI!"** With that scream, a jet of crimson light shot forward out from Reisen's fingertip to directly in front of her, torching a hole in the wood of the Eientei. Not an inch of the attack had hit Tewi, who merely tilted her head a few inches to the right to avoid the attack. Her mirth and cheer had all but vanished from her expression, staring at Reisen with a wide-eyed look before her expression softened a little, more astonished than angry.

"...ah..." Reisen gasped when she realized what she just did. That wasn't ordinary danmaku she used, that was one of her older abilities from the war. If Tewi didn't likewise have centuries of survival experience behind her, even if it was outside of real war, the attack might have actually hurt or killed her. As the realization dawned on her, her legs wobbled before she fell onto her knees, groaning as she buried her face into her hands. She didn't cry, beg forgiveness, or even say a word as she did...something Reisen inherited from her former masters was stubborn pride, after all. She couldn't see and had trouble caring about whatever Tewi was doing to react.

At least until a pair of small arms wrapped around her.

"Hey, hey...it's alright. It's okay. It was...kinda uncalled for? You're not bad-looking at all for a rabbit, I promise. Really...!" Tewi said, trying her best to console her friend, obviously awkward and not entirely understanding what she was doing. But the fact she was trying was appreciated. The half-hearted apology even made Reisen laugh weakly.

She most definitely did not cry, Reisen told herself.

 

* * *

 

"So you can't sleep 'cause of all that?" Tewi asked, the two once again seated on the front steps of the Eientei, the finger-sized hole in the floor still smoking nearby. "And this has been going on for _how_ long?"

"Years." Reisen answered honestly.

"How come you don't see the doc about it? It's not like we can't...you know. Treat anything for anyone." The earth rabbit narrowed her eyes at Reisen, making the latter shift uncomfortably.

"I don't...I guess...I don't know. I feel like if I got rid of the nightmares, I'd suddenly remember everything." Reisen said with a deep sigh.

"...and?" Tewi tilted her head, obviously a little confused.

"If I couldn't remember it on my own except in my nightmares, then won't it be even worse when I remember everything?" Reisen leaned back a little as her gaze went back to the pale half-moon in the sky, her knees close to her chest and her hands supporting her. "Besides, they've gotten a little better. It's just something that happens every now and then. I'll get over it normally."

"That's not _normal_ , Reisen." Tewi said as she folded her arms and leaned forward.

"What? It was war. Of course it's normal this would happen to me!"

"No, I mean...you're a youkai."

"Lunar Rabbit." Reisen quickly corrected.

"Po-tay-toe, po-taht-oh!" Tewi shot back and wiggled her finger. "But I think that says a lot about you."

"You're not making a lot of sense...are you trying to sound mystic and cryptic?" Reisen asked with an exasperated sigh.

"No, it's just...you're thinking like a human does. You actually care about strangers that died and got hurt. Post-traumatic stress is usually because of a guilty conscience, especially in things and people like us." Tewi answered as she stretched with her hands folded together, the sounds of her bones lightly creaking breaking the otherwise silent night. "I know you're brave enough to not care about big conflict, so I think that's what's getting to you. You care, and that's rare." Tewi paused for a second before giggling to herself. "Heh. I rhymed."

"...are you just repeating what Eirin's been teaching you?" Reisen couldn't help but ask with a wry, tired smile.

"I study on my own!" Tewi protested, making a 'hmph' noise as she folded her arms together around her stomach instead. "It's just, you think more like a human being than anyone here, Reisen. You worry about human and youkai patients even if you don't like them or even see them again after. And you also fuss over things you should have gotten over by now even though you can't do anything about it!"

Reisen almost thought the Earth Rabbit was complimenting her until that last part. "And that's not youkai-like?"

"Nope! We just do what we do and not care about what most other people do. Nobody even realized magic and stuff was disappearing until they noticed a lot of the competition was gone." Tewi said with a grin. Of course, the earth rabbit had about a thousand years of age over Reisen, so naturally she had been around for both Gensokyo's inception and earlier parts of Japan's history. It was something she forgot about easily considering how mischievous and hyperactive she was most the time.

"Are you telling me there's not a single thing you regret or feel guilty for?" Reisen asked as she glowered over at Tewi, looking at her shorter counterpart suspiciously.

"Mmm...no, I do. But it was years ago and I don't really think much about it anymore."  She shrugged her shoulders and rested her hands on her lap, resting against her dress.

Reisen was tempted to open her mouth and ask, but restrained herself. She somehow doubted that Tewi would just tell such a personal story so easily, even if this was a rare moment of actual peace between them. She didn't deny the fact the two of them were friends, but the fact was their friendship was built on dislike, pranks, and occasionally hanging up the other's underwear on a flagpole for the world to see.

Reisen tried not to think about the last time Tewi did that. She swore she was starting to make flag designs from them.

"So what are you saying I should do?" The Lunar Rabbit finally asked as she turned to face Tewi.

"Try actually talking to Eirin and take something to help you sleep more. Even if you end up remembering what happened or why the War got to you so badly, it's better to just try and make peace with it. I mean, you can't do anything about it now, so no use letting it eat at you, right?"

"That sounds too easygoing, even for you."

"Mmm...I guess." Tewi shrugged before standing up and dusting off her dress. "But it'll help you sleep better and make you less likely to shoot me!" She added with a cheery grin and a thumbs-up. Something Reisen couldn't help but laugh a little at. The Earth Rabbit pat her on the shoulder.

"In the meantime, it's punishment time!" Tewi then declared.

"Wait wh-" Reisen was only a few seconds into protesting before her face had suddenly greeted a mallet with great intimacy.

'At least I'll sleep tonight', Reisen thought, as she hit the ground and the world went dark for the rest of the night. 


End file.
